Who smokes a pipe these days?

The pipe in the mouth was long an image attached to grandfathers of advanced years. Over the years, however, the pipe has become slightly better known, not least through fictional characters such as Popeye, Sherlock Holmes and Captain Haddock. Far from having spread widely, this accessory still seems to be confined today to a particular group of people. So who are the pipe smokers of today?

A practice with its own codes

Only 1% of smokers use a pipe. Those who do describe it as an occasional rather than a daily habit. Much less widespread than the cigar, the pipe is nevertheless still sought out by purists. The practice concerns only a small percentage of the world's population, but the group remains an active one.

Pipe smokers look for quality, and quality has a price

Specialist shops all say the same thing: they have recorded only a very small drop in pipe tobacco sales over 40 years. The reason they give is the attachment to the object itself. Like a stamp collector, the pipe smoker builds up a collection, spends time cleaning the pipes and looks for a particular tobacco to go with them. Few pipe smokers light one throughout the day; the practice is generally occasional. It also has a cost, and not everyone can meet it.

During the French championship, the aim is to keep a pipe going for as long as possible without relighting it. Pipe clubs are dotted around the country and welcome enthusiasts. Men and women of all ages, though from fairly comfortable backgrounds, like to meet there to talk and share. That said, the clubs are recording a fall in membership. Younger people no longer really follow their elders. The steadily rising price of tobacco and the relatively high cost of the equipment are a considerable brake.

An interest still handed down from one generation to the next

The popular belief that the pipe is only used by older people needs to be set aside. Brassens, Audiard and Frédéric Dard were certainly emblematic pipe smokers. But young people who saw their grandparents with a pipe sometimes take it up in turn. A few clichés still cling to them, such as "bobos", "young philosophers" or "rich kids". Whatever the label, those concerned describe the pipe above all as a family memory and a cultural inheritance. The hipster movement has also brought the pipe forward as a fashionable accessory among younger people in recent years.

Beyond the young, there is another group that openly appears with a pipe: women. Madame de Pompadour and George Sand were among them. Since then, women such as Isabelle Le Métayer, French champion in 2010, have carried the torch. Among public figures, the names include Charlotte Rampling and Andie MacDowell.